University ERP Implementation in Germany: Qualitative Exploratorycase Study of Administrative Staff Experiences

Аннотация

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementations are expensive, time-consuming, and often do not lead to the expected outcome of integrated IT systems. Many German universities are implementing ERP systems as Campus Management Systems (CMS) and a solution to any problem, need, or requirement the organization has. This exploratory case study describes cases of CMS implementations in administrative departments in German universities. Thirteen nonmanagerial staff members in the registrar offices of two universities shared their experiences about critical factors during and after a CMS implementation. The interview questions focused on (a) implementation experiences, (b) implementation leadership, and (c) impact on daily work processes. The interviews were held, transcribed, and analyzed in German. The inductive analysis of the interviews revealed three main themes: (a) communication, (b) system customization, and (c) team composition and resources. The predominant subject in the theme communication was lack of internal and external communication regarding the CMS project. The overarching system customization theme was the complexity of administrative requirements and continuous and rapid adaptation needs requiring increased CMS team support. The focus of the team composition and resources theme was to employ knowledgeable employees thorough and beyond the end of the project to react to changing requirements. These themes are concurrent with previous research but are unique in that previous research did not focus on CMS in Germany. The themes differ because sub-categories are stakeholder group specific and highlight CMS implementation phase dependencies.